


Blackjacks

by justanotherStonyfan



Series: Sugar 'Verse [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Gen, Illegal Activities, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 01:37:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9213512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanotherStonyfan/pseuds/justanotherStonyfan
Summary: James Buchanan is the son of James George, who was the son of James William, whose father was named James John. There's been a James Barnes in every generation, so James Buchanan's father says often, and for as long as the Barnes men are taking wives and having babbies, there always will be.There's always a James Barnes. So, when a man asks for one, he gets one





	

**Author's Note:**

> For [Avengers_Fangirl](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Avengers_fangirl/pseuds/Avengers_fangirl) who requested a little more about the Barnes family.

James Buchanan Barnes has a father whose name is similar, and a grandfather whose name was similar. 

James Buchanan is the son of James George, who was the son of James William, whose father was named James John. There's been a James Barnes in every generation, so James Buchanan's father says often, and for as long as the Barnes men are taking wives and having babbies, there always will be.

They get 'James' in streets and establishments from them who don't know them, like a business proposition, like a partnership or a legend: There's always a James Barnes. So, when a man asks for one, he gets one. If a James Barnes should fall, a James Barnes will stand in his stead.

Bucky's mother Winnifred, had four children and, at home, there are no Jameses 'less somebody's in trouble.

They say their prayers and give their thanks together in the evenings, Bucky now the only one who's not accompanied. James Buchanan is the eldest, Rebecca Marie is the second, and then there's three and four - Annabel Rose and Amanda Ruth - born together. 

Becca's beau's a good feller, has worked for Bucky and his Da for years now, and they've a girl and a boy together. The boy is five, named James John for his great, great grandfather, and the girl is beginning to stand by herself, her first words coming. Her name is for her grandmother's mother, Evelyn, and Bucky stilll remembers his ma cryin' when Becca said. John (James John) is getting' to be a smart little chiseler – he likes the magic tricks Bucky plays at with a penny in his ear, likes the stories Bucky tells him and tells a few of his own. 

John'll be the next, the James Barnes for his generation, if they're still playin' at this by then.

Annabel Rose and Amanda Ruth are both married also, just into their twenties, to young men from outside the business. But that's all right – the Barneses have never talked business at the table – that much is a rule Winnifred laid down long before Bucky was walking. Maybe afore he'd been born at all.

Annie's having her first after Christmas sometime, her slender belly beginning to swell already, and Mandy's already got her first go – twins, like her and her sister, like Bucky's mother and aunt – and it wouldn't be no surprise if Annie's end up the same.

So, as it stands, there's fourteen of 'em in for Sunday dinner, every Sunday after church, upward of six or seven on an evening, as there's always one or two stopping 'round, and George likes to tell Bucky that it's only fair they should be running Brooklyn when they come damned close to _populating_ the place also.

Becca wears a blouse and skirt, as she always does for dinners and parties and lunches. Which she never does for business – it often throws Bucky more than a little when she arrives in clothes that are feminine. He doesn't know a single dame looks better in a suit and tie than Becca, and don't she know it.

The other thing she knows is something Bucky has had to try very hard to keep from everyone else in the world, and that secret's why it is that _her_ first born's called James, and not Bucky's.

Bucky likes Steve very much – liked him from the moment Pointer mentioned him.

Of course, it's luck that Pointer fired the kid, but it's about as far from luck as can be that Bucky tried at least to be on good terms with him. Good with numbers, so Pointer said.

Better for details, it would seem – he even caught the double King burial, and there's not many people would have caught a 'mistake' like that so early, particularly when it was planted in information from before he was hired.

He likes Steve's attitude, likes the way he stands up to people, likes the way he doesn't back down, likes the way he runs his pretty mouth.

Steve is somebody who, sure, is liable to get himself in trouble. But he's also liable to do so for the right reasons. 

Now, for the most part, the Barnes family runs a tight, fair ship. There's plenty of corruption on the streets of Brooklyn but the Barneses know how to pay the right people, so that they can make life easier for others (and if they make life easier for themselves, they only gain more).

Steve picks up codes easy – street names and numbers instead of clientele and psalms, times and dates instead of hymns, and the more complicated stuff that comes with the lyrics.

It's an old system and it serves them well.

Steve's a good Catholic boy, and he'll grow into a good Catholic man – Bucky aims to make sure life's comfortable for him and his Ma because, not only has the kid the potential to be a tremendous asset to them, he's also a great kid.

Becca will follow in Bucky's footsteps because she always has, because she's got the head for it. Steve will rise high if he keeps going the way his first couple of weeks show that he ought. 

And sure, it's fast. But you have to be, in their line of work. The people you don't snatch up right away either end up working for somebody else or meeting an altogether different end. Bucky doesn't want that kind of thing to happen to Steve, and really, Bucky's too old for children now. He was never in the right mind for it. 

He's had a fling or two here or there but he's always been careful. Only person contributing to the family business is Becca now.

But Steve, Bucky considers, could be his protégé. Somebody to teach, somebody to show the ropes, somebody who's going to stick with him a long time and be the kind of benefit a man like Bucky Barnes will always need.

The Barnes clan convene at Bucky's Da's that evening, after Steve's gone home, they say grace. They eat. They have a glass of something and a cigarette after while Bucky's Ma and his sisters go about their own business. That's when Becca strikes.

“So,” she says, “brother mine,” as she joins him on the back stoop. 

He lets her take a drag or three of his ciigarette 'fore he holds out a hand for it back.

“Hired yourself a new young man,” she says. “Fast learner, smart mouth from what I hear. Certainly a pretty young thing.”

Bucky lifts one shoulder, keeps his voice low.

“Ain't nobody's business but mine and Da's who I hire to keep my books writ and my office warm.”

“Is that all of yours he's keepin' warm?”

Bucky snorts.

“For now,” he says, “and what's it matter anyhow so long as I keep business and pleasure separate?”

Becca laughs.

“You better keep it more'n separate, James Buchanan,” she says. “What Da don't see don't bother him, and you know well as I do he looks the other way for some, but you make it impossible for him not to see, and he'll do what he always does when there's a liability.”

Bucky nods, taking another drag on his cigarette.

“I don't know what team our new shortstop's on, but I ain't about to risk the family. Hopin' to get myself a protege is all.”

“And the fact that he's your type has nothing to do with it?”

Bucky shrugs.

“I want the office to look nice, don't I?” he says, and Becca smirks.

~

He hasn't met Steve's mother yet, but Steve talks about her if Bucky asks – seems she's the only thing worth anything in his little life, and Bucky aims to make sure they're both comfortable. After all, a happy workforce is a productive one. And Bucky' Da's a good man, so it's not like he won't assist if he can. 

He is, although plenty of people would disagree. 

The rules are simple – don't cross the Barnes family and they'll treat you well. Except there are people who don't like this idea, people who'd prefer that the Barnes family didn't know what they were doing, and for the most part it's no problem.

They know the majority of what happens in their back yard – the whole of Brooklyn knows there's two places to go. You either speak to the Barneses or you speak to the Mulalleys, and you're better of with a Barnes by far.

Bucky's Da joked once that they oughta put that on their doors instead, plaster it on billboards far as they eye can see. _Better with Barnes_

It's a clever move, undertaking. You don't have to advertise because everyone's going to need you at some point.

So they keep an eye on the to and fro of life in Brooklyn. 

A couple of the stores in town have two sets of weighing scales. One's for regulars, and the kids who look like they could do with a little extra, and one's set at zero, the way it ought to be, for them's that can afford.

Their protection detail isn't run for money, it's run by money. For a fee, it's not hard to keep an eye open, and they're not the kind of practise to smash a window if that fee don't get paid. Protection is protection, not the threat of a well-thrown brick.

The only other racket in town worth a damn is Rory Mulalley's lot – they're run much the same, except they're out for trouble. Where the Barneses overlook the little things that give the citizens of Brooklyn a little more to live on, where they turn a blind eye when somebody's five minutes late or a couple of cents short, Rory Mulalley's lot wait for the seconds to tick down, count out the change and smile.

Theirs is the racket people need protection from, always have been, and there's fewer of 'em now since Bucky's Da was diplomatic about it.

“Come work for me – the hours and pay are better,” is better incentive than those two pretty little knives: 'or else.' Use the carrot, not the stick, and you get further.

Of course, sometimes the stick is needed, but only when the law don't apply. Or won't.

There are a fair few crooked cops on their streets, but the Barneses know which ones can be bought and which ones should be avoided. The Mulalley boys slash left and right blindly if they're provoked, but the Barneses know how to keep their heads and shoulders above everything else, how to run the show without taking part.

There's a storm coming, Bucky knows it, his Da knows it. 

Rory Mulalley's growing older so he's not at Bucky's Da's age but he's past the age Bucky is now. He's smart, canny, he's tight fisted and mean and dishonest and of course, you gotta be in this business. The Barneses run the soup kitchens, and the Mulalleys go there to eat for nothing. The Barneses keep an eye on the kids and give a hand up to the neighbours, and Rory Mulalley would sooner grind them into the dirt under his heel.

So if Mr George the grocer uses a different set of scales when he's weighing apples for the guys from Wall Street, nobody pays any mind. If Ava Gill wants to make sure her children are safe in certain establishments, and is willing to pay a dollar extra on her rent a month to do it, that's something they can do.

And if Rory Mulalley wants a war, he'll get one.

~

“We're thinking of moving the goods,” Bucky's Da tells him and Becca over the drink they have after Sunday dinner, when the men are entertaining the ladies and the children in the other room. “But we've not decided when or where.”

“We're going to want to keep it quiet,” Becca says, dressed proper and speakin' proper. “You know how much effort it's been in the past.”

Bucky nods.

“It's knowing where everybody's gonna be,” he says. “I've had one or two inklings we're not as discreet as we thought.”

Da nods – he already knows, of course – and runs his hand over his mouth.

“You got four lieutenants,” he says. “You reckon one's turned?”

Bucky shrugs one shoulder. It's a nice establishment, with security and patronage courtesy of the Barnes family, and they're safe to speak though nobody's listening anyway.

“It's bad news for him if he has,” he answers, and Bucky's Da nods.

It ain't a pretty business sometimes but looking at the big picture, if it's every momma safe in Brooklyn or the life of a turncoat, the choice is simple. 

And they run a funeral parlor, so it's not like disposal ain't easy as pie.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a reminder - if you liked this, I will be taking prompts for little bits and pieces for this universe over at [my tumblr](http://justanotherstonyfan.tumblr.com/ask). Drop by and give it a go!


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